religious leaders commands, the threat of Hell and damnation was thrown at them, living for eternity with torture of unimaginable consequences (nice god!).
A Protestant preacher by the name of Darby (between the years of 1880 and 1940) taught Dispensationalism in the United States, Dispensationalism is the concept of an antichrist. The belief of many religions of today is that the antichrist will or has already returned to Earth, starting the apocalypse (every generation since Jesus believes the apocalypse will happen in their lifetime, including Jesus). The belief is that the antichrist will do battle with God (evil against good). All 'good souls' will be given a life of peace and want for nothing for a thousand years, and all 'evil souls' that have not 'taken' God into their soul will suffer for eternity in hell. I find it interesting that, 'a thousand years' was used as the period of peace on Earth after the apocalypse, early man could not conceive of a thousand years, so it was used as an 'eternity' prophecy.
Over the last several decades many have been called the antichrist, only to be forgotten by religious scholars when they died. Some of the people who have had this moniker are mostly the ones who have perpetrated evil, these include; Mussolini, Hitler, Napoleon, King George III and even Ronald Wilson Reagan, just because his name has six letters in each word, 666, supposed sign of the devil. Native Americans have been referred to by some as the descendants of the 'fallen angel', because they are not mentioned in the Bible which supposedly listed all of mankind. Maybe Native Americans were not listed in the Bible because Eastern culture authors had no idea they even existed. Da! How did these Prophets miss this fact and others, after all their writings were written with Divine intervention?
Zoroastrianism was founded about six hundred BCE (Axil age) and was based on the teachings of Zoroaster, he was a legislator and Prophet of his time. The Avasta was his 'holy scripture' which emphasized the continuous apocalyptic struggle between good and evil, a philosophy commonly called Mazdaism. This religion was the precursor in Persia to Mohammedanism, which added its own twist on the original teachings of the Axil Age.
Islam Prophet Muhammad was born about 570 C.E (50)and began preaching around 610 CE. He considered 'Allah' to be his own 'special, personal god', and he professed to be the Prophet of Allah (not unlike Jesus who not only proclaimed himself to be the only son of God, but also claimed to be God IE, I AM). He taught a doctrine of future life with wealth and sexual fulfillment and threatened idolaters and non believers of his teachings with 'Hell Fire' and never ending tortuous life after physical death.
Because of his outlandish teachings, Muhammad had many enemies, fearing for his life he fled from Mecca to rule in Medina. His band of followers (cronies) raided the caravans from Mecca and slaughtered the Jews, enslaving the woman and children, not unlike other radical religions as they progressed, his was a religion of personal needs and rule by intimidation and murder. What a 'fine' individual to base a religion on!
After Muhammad's death at the age of sixty two (short life for the personal Prophet of Allah), Abu Bek and Omar I carried on his teachings. They ruthlessly inflicted wars against their rival factions that heathens lasted many years. Even today, the extremist of the Islamic faith consider all who do not share their religious beliefs to be infidels, and these infidels must perish at their hands, for it is; 'Allah's will'. The extremist states of the Islamic faith, Iran, Pakistan and some of the African countries for example, rule by intimidation and terror, including murder of innocent people as a further form of control. But it is not just the radicals of the Islamic faith, 'civilized' countries such as the United States have religious radicals also.
For example, there is a 'secret group' known as, "The Family", comprised of U.S. Senators, Congressmen and several foreign leaders, who have in the past and are currently, imposing their radical views on the people of the world. These religious eccentrics have an agenda of hate and misery against anyone who does not conform to their strict 'moral Christian' guidelines (no different than Shar'ah law). This radical groups leader's claim to be dictated to by Jesus and God, they claim to talk to Jesus and God all the time. This group has been introducing legislation in the U.S. congress for many years against primarily abortion and homosexuality. These radical Christians have been marketing their hateful beliefs not just in the US, but all over the world.
"The Family" has even gone so far as to recently convince the leaders of Uganda to support legislation against homosexuals, to impose long prison sentences and in some cases death for merely being homosexual (after worldwide protest, the law has not been adopted). These are some of the men (fine Christians) who legislate laws and run the democratic country of the United States, imposing their hateful will against anyone who does not conform to their strict religious moral values.
Are you shocked and surprised, don't be, there has been radical secret groups of men in places of high political stature in the government of the United States since its inception, promoting their misguided values on the people they are supposed to represent. Why are these groups secret, the answer to that question is very simple, it is because these secret groups know they do not represent the views of the majority of people they represent. This particular group (The Family) of secret people are a very small influential group of men, pushing their evil agenda behind the scenes in the U.S. government. I believe in my heart these radicals must be aware of their hateful deeds, so why do they persist in spreading this hate around the world, are they truly evil or just brainwashed?
“The Family” is just the tip of the iceberg though, in the United States alone there are somewhere around seventeen hundred radical groups. The range of hate and prejudice spans from racial to political. The white supremacist primarily base their prejudice against anyone who is not 'white', the Tea Party is comprised of people concerned about the U.S. government becoming a socialist state and perhaps initiating a one world government, as well as the people of the country getting further from their religious right wing views, the Minutemen primarily focus on illegal aliens entering the U.S. The list of radicals goes on and on, more than I could possibly list. For more information on radical groups, the Southern Poverty Law Center routinely list and keeps track of these radical groups and their agendas.
Radicals are not limited to the perceived enemies of the western world, but rather unrest is worldwide and is a sign of things to come if we stay on our present course, IE prejudice, want for power, ridiculous religious views, rule by terror and want for wealth.
In today's world, most consider the radical Muslims to be the scourge of the Earth by spreading their hate, but a hundred years from now, it may be the Christians initiating a new crusade against other religions. Throughout history, radical religious terrorism has not been confined to only a single religion, but almost all have at some point in time engaged in this barbaric behavior.
In the early years of the first century CE there was a multitude of religions that popped up in Alexandria. The competition was so great for parishioners and their money (the first coin operated vending machine, a holy water dispenser) that most tried to create some form of 'miracle' to entice people to their temples. There were beliefs in a single god, multiple gods and some religions (as taught in the Axil Age) had no gods at all, but all believed in a higher form of intelligence than mere man.
One of the most noted makers of 'miracles' was Heronis of Alexandria. He was somewhat a genius of his time and even today he would be considered exceptionally bright. He learned from experimentation that he could manipulate objects using simple physics such as manipulating air pressure.
One of his most noteworthy accomplishments (miracles) was the drinking horse with a sword being pulled through the horse's neck. As the sword was pulled through the neck of the horse it activated valves hidden underneath the floor that sent water moving out through a sealed container. The slight vacuum of the moving water in the container created a negative air flow in the horse’s mouth, thus the horse sucked in the water that
had been deposited in a small cup the horseman was holding. Truly a 'miracle', how could a metal horse with a severed head drink from a bowl?
Another of his inventions (miracles) was an archer and a dragon. Using the same principles as with his drinking horse, Heronis was able to have the archer shoot an arrow at the dragon and have the dragon seemingly moan in pain as the arrow hit. The moaning of the dragon was effected by air rushing through the dragons mouth and past a reed.
The superstitions and tales from the ancestors of these societies contributed to the miracles that convinced the followers of religious faiths. But whose religion is the 'right' or 'real religion'? The Christian's believe their religion is the only true religion, as do Buddhist, Islamic followers and Jews, not to mention the other two or three hundred belief systems.
As mentioned earlier, it is interesting to note that religion almost spontaneously sprung up from the eastern European continent to the far reaches of northeastern China in the sixth century BCE, when there was little if any travel between the isolated societies. This spontaneous eruption of religion (as stated) has